Jo Bolam chats with Gabbie Stroud, a freelance writer, novelist and former teacher who lives in Merrimbula, on the NSW South Coast. Gabbie has been writing about the issues facing teachers in our schools for some time and her 2016 essay, Teaching Australia in the Griffith Review was shortlisted for a Walkley Award. Her latest work is a novel about a school, its teachers, students and families called: The Things That Matter Most .